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Meet a Long-Time Friend and Advisor: The Stissing, Mountain Man

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Tim Jones on Stissing Mountain

You Might be a Mountain Man if…

If you live on a mountain and regularly send pictures of nosy black bears sniffing around your front door and casually note in your email: “Had some visitors last night,” then, you might be a mountain man. Meet Tim Jones. He is: “The Stissing Mountain Man.”

Tim Jones lives on Stissing Mountain, located in the Hudson Valley in Pine Plains, New York. I met Tim when his son, also Tim, began working with us 11 years ago. I’ll refer to them as Tim Sr. and Tim Jr. for this piece.

You know when you meet someone and there’s a genuineness where you know they will only speak the truth to you. That’s Tim, Sr. There is no in-between with him. I’ll never forget when Tim Jr. began working with us, we met for lunch here in Newport. My children were young enough where I remember I had my son on my lap while we finished up lunch. Walking out of the restaurant I could tell Tim Sr. was going to miss his son on his drive back to Pine Plains. I knew the love he felt as I held my son’s hand as we walked. Tim Sr., looked at me and simply said about his son Tim: “He’s my hero. “

Farmer Giles of Ham

While at lunch with Tim Sr., the topic, not surprisingly, turned to children’s books. Well, maybe not children’s books. Tim Sr. told me how when his son Tim was younger, he would absorb information at such an elevated level that one of their favorite books was The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

After hearing about this connection, through The Hobbit, Tim Sr. inspired me to read books like My Side of the Mountain to my kids—one of my favorite memories reading to them. A week or so after our lunch a package arrived at my doorstep from Tim Sr. It was Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R Tolkien written for his children—a fixture in our living room bookshelf ever since.

Harley Davidsons Roaring up the Road

To hear Tim Jr. tell it, imagine the roar of two Harley Davidsons kicking up dust as they approach your storefront. Then, picture this big guy with a goatee and a cute woman with pig tails, both clad in riding leathers, parking their bikes, about to enter your store. And that’s how Tim Jr. recalls meeting Dick and Debbie Young at his dad’s custom metalwork shop, Stissing Design.

Stissing Design specializes in zinc. Dick and Debbie had found a hidden gem. Because, as it turns out Tim Jr. had just graduated from college with a degree in economics, and he and Dick had a lot to talk about. Fast forward to today and you’ll see a customized zinc counter top inside Dick and Debbie’s Newport home crafted by Tim Sr. and Tim Jr., who is now a Senior Editor at Young Research & Publishing.

Cleaning Your Rifle like a Mountain Man

Tim Sr. grew up in the outdoors. He was a trapper. He was a hunter. And not for sport, for food. When Tim Jr. was a baby, Tim Sr. would put him in a backpack and check the trap lines. When it comes to firearms and real-life experience, it’s hard to imagine anyone more experienced than Tim Sr. Once, when I asked Tim Jr. about how he and his dad clean their rifles Tim smiled and said, “Dad cleans his every time he puts a round through it.” I like that approach. Keep things simple. With that in mind, allow me to introduce the Stissing Mountain Man, Tim Jones, Sr.

My Interview with The Stissing Mountain Man

Me: Tim, you’re an authority when it comes to firearms. Would you consider doing a regular interview with me?

Tim, Sr.: E.J., I’m flattered. I never think of myself as an authority on guns and ammo, only as it relates to practical application –hunting, trapping, self-defense. The diners and bars are filled with arm chair experts that know ballistics and trajectory better than I ever will, but couldn’t hunt to feed themselves.

Me: Real life experience counts to me Tim. How did you get started? How old were you?

Tim, Sr.: I have spent the better part of my life armed for one reason or another. When I was about eight and my brother eleven, we bought two guns from the local game warden, a single shot Remington .22 and a 20-gauge Mossberg bolt action shotgun with a poly choke. That .22 proved to be a great little rifle time and time again. The 20-gauge was the worst shotgun we ever owned. We still have them.

Me: One of my favorite stories your son tells me was how you’d have him out in the woods in your backpack. It seems like he has always been at your side, or in your backpack in this case.

Tim, Sr.: I used to pick Tim up from school in hip boots when I was a private contractor recommended and endorsed by NYDEC. A woman giving a class on the environment approached me about my strange attire which led to a nine-year, part time job teaching wildlife and tracking at an environmental school in southern NY. Tim used to go with me a lot. He was six or eight maybe. The kids (mostly from the inner city and Long Island) would like to ask him lots of questions. They called him “mountain boy.” He grew up with a gun in hand also.

Me: Hard to imagine a better way to grow-up. Thanks Tim. Talk to you soon.

Here are some photos Tim took of a recent visitor to his home on the mountain.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com